Synopsis

Moving to Miami was supposed to be enough distance from her family and her past, but Paige Kerimov can’t seem to get them out of her head. A year of self-induced solitude, nothing but school, Paige reluctantly starts to let people back into her life, including one person in particular; the insistent and attractive Brady Quinlan with whom she is paired for a project that will impact her major. She has no choice but to work with him, no matter how tough that makes it to deny her attraction to him.

As Paige lets her guard down, remnants of a violent past and a tragic history start to resurface and Brady knows she is hiding something. He tries to figure her out, but she can’t let him see when the truth is that she isn’t sure if she’s in danger from anything other than herself

Excerpt

A single tear drop defies me and leaks out of my right eye, traveling a jagged path down my cheek. Brady takes his hand off of mine and wipes the tear away with one finger, then cups the side of my face and pulls me a little bit closer to him. “Don’t be sad, Paige. I’ve grieved already. I will always miss her, but I have wonderful memories of my mother to take with me.”

I close my eyes and lean into his hand without thinking. I’m sad for him, yes, but I also want to know why he can speak of his dead mother with such maturity when I can’t stop conjuring the image of my dead sister. And I’m a selfish bitch for being jealous of his acceptance.

When I open my eyes again, he is looking at me with intent. His thumb moves to stroke my bottom lip and a tiny sigh escapes my throat. The table between us is quite narrow and there is so little distance keeping me from kissing him. It scares me. I feel like a bucket of ice water is being poured over my head and I snap back in my seat with such suddenness that I knock my bag over and the contents spill out on the floor under the table. Brady is still poised there with his hand extended, but the look on his face says he is disappointed. He recovers in record time and we both bend down to retrieve my things. I shove my clothing back in the bag and then I sit up too fast and smack the back of my head on the hard surface of the table. It stuns me and makes my vision swim for a minute, but I still see what is laying on the floor. The package I received earlier must not have been sealed properly because the contents have made their way onto the floor. The necklace my sister always wore, a platinum heart pendant with her Garnet birthstone in the center, is sticking out of the envelope. It is dirty; covered in a substance that I believe is dried blood, and a note is attached. The red lipstick from the mirror was used to spell out ‘I will always find you’.

About the Author

I’m pretty sure I could read before I could walk. I remember sneaking in extra reading time with a flashlight as a kid after bedtime. Remember those shiny Lisa Frank sets? I traded mine for paperbacks in the fifth grade. Some of my favorite authors include, Christopher Pike, Anne Rice, and Sylvia Plath.

I write YA and New Adult. Currently, I live in South Florida. Having changed my major three times, I’m still in college and I wait tables in my spare (ha!) time.